If the county prince's palace hadn't taken the initiative, the matter of announcing the decree would never have been Zhang Ping's turn.
However, in the eyes of outsiders, this was because the third prince was full of resentment towards Han Qian's "defection", so he took over the matter of announcing the decree so that he could send someone to question Han Qian.
Of course, Qianyang City was also wary of Zhang Ping and his entourage. On the first day they were invited to the post house, all the soldiers accompanying them were confiscated. Zhang Ping and his entourage did not enjoy the slightest bit of imperial envoyship at all.
The special envoy's treatment, except for meeting Han Daoxun on the first day, was basically under house arrest in the post house, and he had no chance to meet with other officials in Xuzhou.
Yao Xishui sat in front of the window, facing the newly bloomed peach tree in the yard, and plucked the strings distractedly. It had been six days since they arrived in Xuzhou, and Han Qian didn't show up. In his heart, he wanted to be Han Qian.
Qian has been hiding in Longya Mountain and never returned to Qianyang City, so didn't her trip to Xuzhou with Chun Shisanniang go to Xuzhou in vain?
Chun Shisanniang was sitting on the soft couch, looking boredly at the fish pond under the window - fish ponds were dug in the yards of wealthy people in Jinling, and they raised koi just to look good, but the shallow pond in this yard raised crows.
It is green, but it can add some vitality to it, and you can fish it out for a delicious meal after growing it for a year.
"Crash..." Listening to the sound of soldiers swarming together, Yao Xishui and Chun Shisanniang looked out at the outer courtyard and saw a group of soldiers rushing in without saying hello. Zhang Ping in front was so angry that he had blue veins on his forehead.
Jumped and shouted: "We are special envoys to announce the decree, what do you mean?"
"I'm sorry, the young master will come over to see Mr. Zhang in person later, but in case something unpleasant happens, I would like to ask Mr. Zhang to cooperate." The leading general said politely, but ordered his men to go into the house and search.
Search Box Lung didn't hesitate at all.
"The father and son of the Han family are really as high as the mountains and the emperor is far away - no wonder this guy wants to defect, look at how happy they are here!" Chun Shisanniang said with emotion.
At this time, Xi Rong led several strong women wearing leather armor and carrying swords on their waists into the inner courtyard. They looked at Yao Xishui and Chun Shisanniang and said, "If you two girls also want to see the young master, you will have to suffer a lot."
Now that you are done, please hand over all the weapons you have hidden on your body."
"When did he become so timid?" Yao Xishui asked disdainfully as he took out the two daggers hidden in his sleeves, put them on the case and asked the female soldiers to take them away.
"I have said that I have always been afraid of death, but you think I am very brave, so you always guess wrong." Han Qian stood at the entrance of the courtyard and looked over from a distance.
"Are you afraid of death when you fled to Xuzhou?" Yao Xishui asked.
"Otherwise, what do you think, Miss Yao?" Han Qian asked with a smile.
Seeing Xi Rong personally taking action and searching Yao Xishui and Chun Shisanniang all over their bodies, Han Qian waved his hand and motioned for all the soldiers in the yard to go out first, leaving Xi Rong alone to accompany him.
At this time, Han Qian handed over his hand to Zhang Ping in the next yard. Yuan Guowei came over and said:
"Sir Zhang, Mr. Yuan can reach Qianyang City safely. It seems that Tanzhou is convinced that the Han family and his son have the ambition to separate Xuzhou! Everything just now must be shown to outsiders. I haven't figured it out yet.
How many spies are there in Tanzhou who are staring at my father and son? Please don’t mind Mr. Zhang and Mr. Yuan!”
After Xuzhou Jia soldiers and their accompanying escorts were invited out of the courtyard, they saw Han Qian suddenly changed his face, Yao Xishui, Chun Shisanniang opened her lips so much that they had to stuff an egg into them, and Zhang Ping also changed his face again. Surprised and suspicious.
Looking at the beautiful faces of Yao and Chun, Han Qian smiled proudly, walked into the back room first, and sat down in front of the case.
Among them, only Yuan Guowei, who was an ordinary book clerk, knew the inside story. He walked in and cupped his hands to Han Qian and said, "Mr. Han has been troubled in the past few months."
Zhang Pingyuan was already confused, so he calmed down first, sat down and stared at Han Qian and asked: "Master Han, can you explain what is going on now?"
"I am 'absconding' according to the order. Your Highness, Mr. Shen Yang, Mr. Zheng, Mr. Jiang, and Mr. Yuan have all known about this for a long time! Let me put it this way, Mr. Zhang should understand what your Majesty is going to do next, right?" Han Qian smiled and asked.
"Tanzhou?" Zhang Ping is also very intelligent. After hearing Han Qian pierce this layer of paper, how could he not guess that the ultimate goal is to seek Tanzhou?
And everything he did was to deceive Tanzhou!
"Why can't the Marquis know about it at the first time?" Chun Shisanniang has always been able to show off her charms with ease. At this moment, she was shocked and could no longer suppress her inner dissatisfaction and asked.
She, Yao Xishui, and even Zhang Ping can be said to be unqualified to know the entire plan from the beginning, but Xinchang Hou Lipu, as the father-in-law of the third prince, in everyone's eyes, he is the strongest supporter behind the scenes of the county prince's palace. , he was completely kept in the dark, and it was hard for Chun Shisanniang to feel satisfied.
Who can believe that Han Qian did not intentionally instigate the third prince to exclude them?
Yao Xishui stared at Han Qian with burning eyes, and then glanced at his adoptive father Zhang Ping. Seeing his adoptive father's calm eyes, he thought that Han Qian actually suspected that Wan Honglou was secretly colluding with Tanzhou, right?
If Han Qian had not confirmed that there was no collusion between Wanhonglou and Tanzhou, maybe they would not know the full plan at the last moment, right?
Han Qian smiled slightly. Yuan Guowei was here. He would not explain the real reason. He just smiled and said: "The failure is not secret. Tanzhou has spent a lot of money to bribe officials in the court over the years. It is difficult to know who is truly reliable." , so the less people know about the overall plan, the safer it is. Only Mr. Shen, the young eunuch of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, knows about His Majesty."
Han Qian's words cannot explain why Xinchang Hou Li Pu was initially excluded, but in Yuan Guowei's view, perhaps Han Qian and the Xinchang Hou Mansion were not on the same page at all, and the intention was to suppress the Xinchang Hou Mansion's right to speak around the third prince.
Yuan Guowei and Jiang Huo are supervisors in a larger sense and executors to a certain extent. They do not participate in the overall planning. Therefore, it is difficult to see through the existence of another relationship between Han Qian, Zhang Ping, Yao Xishui, and Chun Shisanniang. layer relationship.
Han Qian had long confessed to him that Yao Xishui and Chun Shisanniang were trained by the Xinchang Hou Mansion. At this time, in his opinion, Zhang Ping should have been attracted by the Xinchang Hou Mansion, and now they are working together for His Highness the Third Highness. , and of course it is trustworthy.
"Reminiscing about the past", Yuan Guowei then truly introduced the situation in Jinling in the past three months after Han Qian absconded: "His Majesty initially considered sending the families of General Zuo Si to Xuzhou, but there were too many ministers in the court. If you object, we have no choice but to give up, and leave everything to the disposal of the county prince's palace at this time. Your Highness will never treat you unfairly, and Mr. Han also asks General Zuo Si to relax."
Han Qian nodded. Whether the situation did not allow it or whether Emperor Tianyou was unwilling to give up the last bit of control over Xuzhou was not something he should investigate in detail at this time.
In addition, he and his father were officially granted the title of Xuzhou this time, and they did not openly break with the imperial court. He arranged those Zuosi generals who had families in Jinling to serve as grassroots officials at the township level, so they should still be able to feel at ease
Serious.
For thousands of years, the central government's control over local areas has mostly stayed at the county level. Although most dynasties established a system of townships, pavilions, and squares, these grassroots subordinate officials were almost always controlled by the local lords.
In the past, the central government only needed to collect corresponding corvee taxes from local areas. The local tyrants' control over local areas could even effectively maintain the central government's rule over local areas to a certain extent and reduce the occurrence of refugees and rebellions.
All dynasties in the past were happy to see this situation come to fruition, as long as the power of the local tyrants did not become so great that it threatened the central power.
It’s just not possible in Xuzhou.
The population of Xuzhou is still too small.
Even if the big families of the four surnames do not make any resistance and show their submission, and even if Han Qian is able to further expel the forces of Tanzhou from Xuzhou, as usual, the three counties of Xuzhou will not pay more than three taxes and levies to the state capital in a year.
Thousands of kilograms of grain and three thousand pieces of cloth; the total number of corvees that can be collected will not exceed 600 people per year; the city parking tax and commercial tax may add up to two or three thousand coins.
This small amount of resources is only enough to barely maintain the state capital's public expenditure, not to mention continuing to cultivate new fields, dig rivers and canals, and not to mention raising two to three thousand additional elite soldiers!
You must know that before fleeing, Han Qian invested more than 100,000 yuan of resources in Xuzhou for building workshops and cultivating new fields. The money and food he brought during his escape this time also exceeded 100,000 yuan, but it was also
It can last until April or May at most.
At present, the county prince's government is preparing for war in Ezhou. Even if Tanzhou does not block the Yuanshui River, it is impossible for large-scale resources to be transported into Xuzhou to support the construction here.
To collect more resources on the spot from Xuzhou cannot be done with just a piece of paper. In addition to sufficient coercive power, there also needs to be strong enough execution at the grassroots level.
Although it is a pity that all the generals and soldiers of Zuosi cannot be used as military attachés, it is another acceptable option to settle down in the countryside, which is useless.
"The Han family is currently moving to Jinling. Jiang Huo is responsible for going there every once in a while to harass and blackmail them to make sure they don't get too close to the prince. In addition to giving decrees to Xuzhou this time, His Majesty also gave orders to Tan
The state issued a secret decree, ordering Tanzhou to guard against Xuzhou and prohibit trade with Xuzhou. Master Han must be prepared for all these things!" Yuan Guowei said.
Zhang Ping and the others didn't even know about Jinling's extra secret order for Tanzhou, but now that they knew about it, it was not difficult to imagine the intention behind it.
The imperial court issued a secret order to Tanzhou to blockade Xuzhou. On the surface, the imperial court had a grudge against the Han family and his son. Whether Tanzhou was pretending to obey the imperial order or wanted to put pressure on the Han family and his son, once the Yuanshui River was blocked
, in fact, it gave Han Daoxun and Han Qian an excuse to confront Tanzhou in Xuzhou.
Otherwise, before the imperial court really takes action against Tanzhou, what excuses do Han Daoxun, Han Qian and his son have to root out the forces that have penetrated into Xuzhou from Tanzhou?
As for the extortion of the Han family, it seems that the county prince's government intends to put Han Qian's absconding account on the Han family, but in addition to continuing to cover up others' eyes, it also raises money and food for the county prince's government to prepare for war in Ezhou at this time.
Zhang Ping realized at this time that the third prince asked them to come to Xuzhou to convey the order, which was actually a cover for Yuan Guowei to meet Han Qian.